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Abstract

This thesis describes the development and correlation of a thermal model that
forms the foundation of a thermal capacitance spacecraft propellant load estimator.
Specific details of creating the thermal model for the diaphragm propellant tank used
on NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft using ANSYS and the correlation
process implemented are presented. The thermal model was correlated to within +/-
3 Celsius of the thermal vacuum test data, and was determined sufficient to make
future propellant predictions on MMS. The model was also found to be relatively
sensitive to uncertainties in applied heat flux and mass knowledge of the tank. More
work is needed to improve temperature predictions in the upper hemisphere of the
propellant tank where predictions were found to be 2-2.5 Celsius lower than the test
data. A road map for applying the model to predict propellant loads on the actual
MMS spacecraft in 2017-2018 is also presented.